Good morning one and all, and welcome to my International Women’s Day, (IWD), themed diary.
Let’s start with a little herstory:
According to the United Nations, the day was first celebrated in February 1909, to honor the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York. Until 1975 it was celebrated for a variety of reasons on a variety of dates. The International Year of the Woman was in 1975, and it was then that the UN designated March 8th, International Women's Day.
Here’s a little tidbit that I learned while researching this diary; could come in handy when I watch Jeopardy:
The UN and Gender Equality
The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men.
www.un.org/...
Who provides structure for this event?
Turns out there’s an actual group that organizes events, and sets a campaign theme for people celebrating around the world. However, they are very clear that:
Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organisation specific. Make IWD your day! - everyday!
https://www.internationalwomensday.com
The theme is designed to be used throughout the year
IWD campaign theme continues all year
March 8 sees the annual IWD campaign theme kick off for the year ahead, although many groups around the world adopt and promote the campaign theme from early in the year. The IWD campaign theme provides a unified direction to guide and galvanize collective action. The campaign theme does not end on International Women's Day. It's just the start. Throughout the year many groups worldwide adopt the IWD campaign theme for further campaign work, gender-focused initiatives, continuing activity and events. A great example of this was in 2017 when the USA Women's Hockey Team went on to adopt the #BeBoldForChange IWD campaign theme to later rally for equal pay, boycotting the national finals unless a suitable deal was struck. Many fans and further teams supported the campaign.
www.internationalwomensday.com/...
Check out their site for more information on different events, and ways you can participate. They have information on submitting photographs of your IWD2018 activity, provide selfie “cards” for your social media use, and information on how to plan an event. It may be a little late for this year, but helpful for 2019 and beyond.
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There are many female empowerment songs out there, but I’m a big fan of this song, and have been since it was first released in 1971.
Stay with the attached video to see what makes it’s powerful: